Exclusions from school - advice for parents
If your child is excluded, their school will notify you by letter.
As a parent, you are legally responsible for the supervision of your child during the exclusion period. The law also says that your child should continue their education whilst excluded.
Exclusions up to 5 days
The school should set work and you must make suitable arrangements with the school for work to be collected and returned for marking during the initial 5-day period of the exclusion.
You must ensure that your child stays at home during normal school hours, in the first 5 days of any exclusion.
Your child must not be found in a public place without reasonable justification. It doesn’t matter if the child is with you or another adult.
Failure to comply with this requirement will mean that you are breaking the law. If your child is seen present in a public place you could be issued with a fixed penalty notice of £60 which you must pay within 21 days. If the penalty notice remains unpaid, this might increase to £120. After 28 days, you could be prosecuted and have to appear in court.
This does not apply to lunchtime exclusions.
Exclusions more than 5 days
If the fixed term exclusion is for over 5 days, the school must provide the child with full-time education from day 6. The headteacher will inform you of the arrangements for this in writing.
If your child has not received this support after 5 days, please contact their school.
The headteacher will invite you and your child to a reintegration interview following each exclusion. They should arrange a time for this interview that is suitable for you.
The interview will normally take place on the day the child returns to school, but this could be shortly before or shortly after your child is due to return to school.
You should do your best to attend the interview but if you cannot attend this does not stop your child from returning to school.
The school cannot extend an exclusion period.
Children at risk of permanent exclusion
You can contact the School Attendance Support Service for advice if your child is at risk of permanent exclusion.
Only a headteacher can permanently exclude your child from school.
Schools have a legal duty to provide full-time education for any student excluded from school for the first 5 days.
After 5 days, the council must provide full-time education. You will be notified of the arrangements.
The governors will meet, usually within 15 school days, to review the headteacher's decision and will decide to either:
- uphold the exclusion
- reinstate your child at the school immediately or by a specific date
The school will invite you to this meeting.
If the governors uphold the permanent exclusion of your child, you can ask an independent review panel to review the governors’ decision.
Last updated 18 December 2023